National Poetry Month: “Greek” Poetry
There’s so much beautiful poetry to explore. Poetry by Greek and Diaspora Greek poets. Poetry inspired by Greece. Don’t know about you, but I read poetry differently. I don’t read a poetry collection cover to cover. I read some and then move on, because I like to savor the work, ponder the images and feelings they evoke. It’s not unusual for me to read a poetry collection or anthology over the course of months. I’ll return to it, have a bite as it were, then save the rest for another time.
Don’t know where to start? Try an anthology. Or a collection by multiple poets. That way, you can sample works of different poets. Then, the ones you particularly enjoy, you can go explore their full collections and chapbooks. Some of the books include both the original Greek and the English translation, which is wonderful because sometimes things are lost in translation – and they are beautiful to read. Plus, they’re great for building your Greek skills!
Here are some poetry books that I have in my library, along with their descriptions.
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Kindled Terraces: American Poets in Greece (New Odyssey Series) edited by Don Schofield
(Truman State University Press, 2004)
This collection features poems by 40 contemporary American poets influenced by their experience in modern Greece. Spanning more than five decades, the poems in this anthology are written by highly acclaimed and newer poets who embrace a variety of styles, including lyric and narrative free verse, new formalism, language, and experimental poetry. The wide range of voices in this collection illustrates the extent Greece moves those who get to know the country intimately, and how its history, mythology, and modern diversity hold a significant place in the American poetic imagination.
Poets in this volume include: James Merrill; Jack Gilbert; Rachel Hadas; Peter Green; Edward Field; Michael Waters; Joseph Stroud; Alicia Suskin Ostriker; Rachel Blau DuPlessis; A. E. Stallings; Nicholas Samaras; Christopher Bakken; Alice Friman; Charles O. Hartman; Thomas McGrath; Alan Ansen; P. H. Liotta; Rebecca Newth; Moira Egan; Rina Ferrarelli; Barry Tagrin; Linda Elkin; Donald Brees; Jeffrey Carson; Adrianne Kalfopoulou; Lonnie Dupont; Linda Gregg; Charles Fishman; Robert Lax; Gail White; Eleni Sikelianos; Mark Sargent; William Pitt Root; Philip Ramp; Dave Mason; Bill Mayer; Diane Thiel; Laurel Mantzaris; and, Becky Sakellariou.
The Romantic Poetry of Greece: An Anthology: 1880-1960 translated by Arthur G. Nikelly
(Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center, 2009)
This anthology compiles Greek romantic poetry from a later, specific period (1880-1960) rather than the classical era. It includes 140 poems by 21 lesser-known Greek poets of the late 19th through middle of the 20th century. Nearly all of the poems are translated for the first time in English. Each translation is accompanied by the original Greek text.
Chosen for their insight into the human condition, their celebration of the imagination, their insistence on freedom of expression, and the validation of our feelings, these introspective poems offer an intuitive understanding of our fellow beings and deepen our affection for nature.
Neo-Hellene Poets: An Anthology of Modern Greek Poetry: 1750-2018 translated and introduced by Manolis Aligizakis
(Libros Libertad Publishing Ltd., 2018)
While many serious readers have been exposed to the ancients, and to the works of some, high-profile modernists—like Cavafy, Seferis and, perhaps, even Ritsos — most modern Greek poetry has remained largely out of reach for English-speaking monoglots. But that is changing quickly, chiefly as the result of the efforts of Manolis Aligizakis, a Greek-Canadian poet of considerable lyrical achievements of his own. Quite apart from having published many volumes of his own much-celebrated poems, Manolis has, for years now, devoted himself to preparing high-quality and nuanced translations of the works of modern Greek poets. He has to this point given us his take mainly on the above-mentioned and better-known writers.
This book has been called a “Heraclean undertaking”, one that opens the door for English-speaking readers to the work of many highly respected Greek poets who are essentially unknown outside their own country. The book is a “skeleton key” to the poems of 60 Greek moderns whose writings deserve a wider readership. The deft and skilled translations that make up the anthology are helpfully supplemented by brief but informative biographical profiles of the subject poets, putting them on the map for Englishs-peaking readers in a way that has not been done before.
Voices of Modern Greece: Selected Poems translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard
(Princeton University Press, 2021)
This anthology is composed of more recently revised translations selected from the five volumes of work by major poets of modern Greece offered by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard during the past two decades. The poems chosen are those that translate most successfully into English and that are also representative of the best work of the original poets.
C. P. Cavafy and Angelos Sikelianos are major poets of the first half of the twentieth century. George Seferis and Odysseus Elytis, who followed them, both won the Nobel Prize in literature. Nikos Gatsos was a very popular translator, lyricist, and critic.
Pomegranate Seeds: An Anthology of Greek-American Poetry edited by Dean Kostos
(Somerset Hall Press, 2008)
Compiled and edited by the late Dean Kostos, this volume is the first-ever collection of poems in English by 49 prominent Greek-American poets from throughout the United States. Nicholas Gage, best-selling Author of Eleni and A Place for Us, praised the collection. “Pomegranate Seeds is a rich and evocative mosaic in verse of the Greek-American experience that has much to offer not only Greeks and Americans but every traveler in that mysterious and tumultuous voyage called life.”
Among the poets are Nicos Alexiou, Manya Couolentianos Bean, Dorothea Bisbas, Lili Bita, Sevasti Boutos, John Bradley, Ioanna Carlsen, Neil Capathios, Yiorgos Chouliaras, Kyriaki S. Christodolou, George A. Christopoulos, Constantine Contogenis, George Economou, Eleni Fourtouni, Emily Frangos, Dan Georgakas, Faye George, Aris Georgiadis, Veronica Golos, M.J. Golias, Stathis Gourgouris, Thea Halo, Nicholas Johnson, George Kalamaras, Nina Karacosta, Penelope Karageorge, E.D. Karampetsos, Helen Dendrinou Kolias, Sofia Kontogeorge Kostos, Dean Kostos, Barbara Lekatsas, John Manesis. Kathryn Maris, Thanasis Maskaleris, Andriana Mastor, Cleopatra Mathis, Zaharati Morfesis, Nikki Moustaki, Kostas Myrsiades, Stephanos Papadopoulos, Andriana Rizos, Helen Ruvelas, Nicholas Samaras, Minas Savvas, Hilary Sideris, Eleni Sikelianos, Diana Stamatelatos-Theocharis, Tryfon Tolides, and Deno Trakas.
A Century of Greek Poetry 1900-2000: Bilingual Edition selected & edited by Peter Bien, Peter Constantine, Edmund Keeley, and Karen Van Dyck
(Attica Editions, 2004)
This unique bilingual anthology presents the achievements of Greek poetry in the 20th century. Included are 109 poets and 456 poems, with the Greek original and the English translation on opposite pages. Included are the internationally recognized C.P. Cavafy, the Nobel Prize winners George Seferis and Odysseus Elytis, as well as all the major Greek poets of the 20th century. Names like Kiki Dimoula, Nanos Valaoritis, Tassos Leivaditis, Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke, Katerina Gogou, Dionysis Savvopoulos, Ersi Sotiropoulos, and Spiros L. Vrettos stand out, but there are many more to explore.
Many of the poems in the Greek original and many translations are published for the first time. The four editors, all award-winning authors and translators, not only selected the poems, but also have translated many of them. In all 63 translators contributed their work to this anthology. Also, included are Kimon Friar’s unpublished corrections/modifications to his original translations.
The Greek Poets: Homer to the Present edited by Peter Constantine, Rachel, Hadas, Edmund Keeley, and Karen Van Dyck
(W.W. Morton & Company, 2009)
This landmark volume captures three millennia of Greek poetry―more than 1,000 poems and 200 poets. From the epics of Homeric Greece to the historical and erotic ironies of Cavafy, from the romances, hymns, and bawdy rhymes of Byzantium to the innovative voices of a resurgent twentieth century, this anthology brings together the diverse strands of the Greek poetic tradition.
The favorites are all here―raging Achilles, restless Odysseus, strong-hearted Penelope―but The Greek Poets also presents neglected eras, from the rise of Constantinople to the end of the Ottoman occupation. In offering canonical poets such as Sappho and Pindar, and the modern Nobel laureates Seferis and Elytis, the renowned editors give us their new translations and bring together other masterful translators, including Robert Fagles, James Merrill, and W. S. Merwin, along with a younger generation that includes Anne Carson, Paul Muldoon, and Alicia Stallings. This is an essential companion to the Western literary tradition.
National “Greek” Poetry Month
Lots of great anthologies to add to your list. Happy Reading!
Read more:
Poet Spotlight: Meet Greek-American Marigo J. Stathis
Poet Spotlight: Meet Katerina Kampa
National Poetry Month: Greek Poets – Onoufrios Dovletis
National Poetry Month: Greek Poets – Lia Siomou
